Early Greek Philosophy on the Question of Life: Plants’ Physiology and Life from the Presocratics to Aristotle

Abstract

Aristotle excluded plants from kinship with animals, but included them in the great chain of life. Provided with bare living functions, plants began to constitute a different and separated kind, holding a position that through Theophrastus would be appropriated by Linnaeus and would define modern botany and more. The aim of this essay is twofold: to discuss the conception of plants’ physiology and life in ancient philosophical doctrines while accounting for Aristotle’s exclusion. Rather than following a chronological line, I will start with Aristotle on the belief that he responded to the doctrines of the Presocratics. He assigned to plants a φύσις (nature) of their own, incompatible with that of animals, and thus broke the continuity among forms of life that held together the living world for the early Greek philosophers, students of nature (φυσιόλογοι). Prior to Aristotle, I will argue, plants were seen as full-fledged living beings (ζῷα) sharing many characteristics with animals, including a similar physiology and capacities.